On Retreat

The priests of my diocese (myself included) will be on retreat through the first part of this week, which means that I will be taking a little break from blogging.

Please pray for the priests of Great Falls - Billings, and for all priests!

"There are no bad priests, only priests for whom there has not been enough prayer!" - St.  John Vianney

The Fatima Devotion of the Five First Saturdays

May 13^th, Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

The three children of Fatima – Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta – said that the Blessed Mother came to them as “The Lady of the Rosary”, commanding them and all to pray the Rosary daily for peace in the world. We recall that world peace must surely begin in our own homes and families, hence the family Rosary has a certain pride of place in the devotional life of the people of God – this is why the Church grants a plenary indulgence to any who devoutly recite five decades of the Rosary as a family (with the usual conditions). [please join us in a prayer-campaign for the family Rosary (here), and on Facebook (here)]

In addition to the Rosary, the Five First Saturdays Devotion is closely associated to the message of Fatima. But in what exactly does the first Saturdays devotion consist? How do we complete it?

Did Job really exist?

May 10^th, Feast of St. Job

In the land of Hus, St. Job, Prophet, a man of wonderful patience. (from The Roman Martyrology)

While it is not uncommon to hear modern biblical “scholars” question the historicity of the book of Job and of Job himself, there can be no doubt that the Bible presents Job as a real historical person.

Not only is this the opinion of the Church Fathers and Doctors, but it is also affirmed by other passages of the Scriptures. Further, the Latin Church has traditionally kept the feast of St. Job today. The Greeks keep it on May 6.

The Family Rosary: Gain a plenary indulgence without leaving home!

The revival of the Rosary in Christian families, within the context of a broader pastoral ministry to the family, will be an effective aid to countering the devastating effects of this crisis typical of our age. […]

The family that prays together stays together. The Holy Rosary, by age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer which brings the family together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes toward Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God. (Bl. John Paul II, Rosarium Virignis Mariae, nn. 6 and 41)

What a grace the family Rosary is for the Christian home! And yet, with all the demands of modern life, how can an ordinary Catholic family begin the practice of the daily Rosary?

[Please consider our May prayer-Campaign for the Family Rosary (here), join us on facebook (here)]

"Without me you can do nothing" - What Calvinists and Jesuits don't understand about divine providence

van Gogh: "Man writing, facing left"
(primary and secondary causality)

5^th Sunday of Easter, John 15:1-8

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Jesus did not say, “Without me you can do only a few things,” nor “Without me you scarcely can do even little things,” but rather Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5).

On the one hand, there are the Calvinists who so emphasize the divine causality as to diminish free will. Indeed, their doctrine of double-predestination makes man to be nothing more than a donkey, ridden either by Satan into hell or by God into heaven.

On the other hand, the classical Jesuits (like St. Robert Bellarmine and Fr. Francisco Suárez) generally struggle to give sufficient acknowledgment to the role of divine providence. Certainly, the Jesuits are not semi-Pelagian heretics, yet their writings often tend to lean toward an over-emphasis of the human will and a de-emphasizing of God’s causal powers.

Both the Jesuits and the Calvinists see man and God as competing forces in a battle over who is the “cause” of any given action. This is their fundamental flaw.

Whatever the modern scholars tell you, James the Less is one of the Twelve Apostles

It may come as something of a surprise to many, but it is not uncommon for modern historical-biblical “scholars” (I, for my part, doubt whether they are deserving of the name) to claim that St. James the Less, “the brother of the Lord”, was not the same St. James who was an Apostle and the son of Alphaeus.

Pope Benedict XVI, on the other hand, clearly states (by the authority of his ordinary Magisterium) that James the son of Alphaeus, one of the Twelve, is the same James the Less, “the brother of the Lord”.

James the Less and James the Greater

In earlier articles, we have already detailed the ancestry of these two men – [here] and [here] – for the present, we will simply indicate which James is which.

The "Little Crown" of the Blessed Virgin: A May devotion

May is set aside as Mary’s Month, a time in which we honor the various privileges given the Mother of God by the three Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity. In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, this month concludes with the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which we recall the Coronation of our Lady as the Queen of heaven and earth, the Queen of all hearts.

A once common devotional prayer, known as the “Little Crown” of the Blessed Virgin Mary, honors the triple crown of twelve stars which our Lady received from God upon her bodily assumption into heaven (cf. Revelation 12:1).  This little prayer takes only a few minutes to pray (it is much shorter than the Rosary) and would be a wonderful way for a devout soul to honor the Mother of God in the month dedicated to her.